Load support constructions, such as chairs and tables, have been devised to employ one or more components capable of moving in various ways to accommodate changes in the distribution of loads borne by such constructions and in the weight and pressure portions constituting such loads, such as changes in the posture of the occupant of a lounge chair, and to allow folding of the constructions, thereby reducing their dimensions to permit storage and transport when not in use. Means for providing such adaptability in relatively uncomplicated constructions, however, have generally consisted of very simple relationships of one movable component to an otherwise static support structure, such as a backrest hinged to a rigid seat-and-leg frame. Some rather rough outdoor furniture has consisted of pivotally articulated frames and linkage bars having a simple sling-type load-bearing surface draped between two intersecting frames.
In some representatives of the prior art (Meeker U.S. Pat. No. 1,969,313; Stanley U.S. Pat. No. 2,048,147; Gilbert U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,106; and Singer U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,604,) flexible tension materials, such as chain, cable, or fabric, are used in place of one or of both pairs of the rigid horizontal pivot bars disclosed by other representatives of the prior art referenced above. However, use of flexible or elastic tension materials alone to afford pivotal connection of the constituent parts of such constructions, without the aid of a positive, structural pivoting articulation, results in a very loose jointing of constituent parts, causing the folding, or rather the "collapsing," action of the entire construction to be difficult, disjointed, and imprecise.
The present invention, however, provides a relatively uncomplicated load-support device comprised of several separate but functionally integrated gross-load-bearing, fractional-load-sharing structures, means, and arrangements of such interrelated structural components and features. These load-sharing components and features are structurally integrated in mutually co-responsive, load-distributing, and counterbalancing relationships. In this way, an integrally adaptable and implicitly load-apportioning, balancing, load-adjusting, and spontaneously load-reapportioning support device is formed. The differentiating fractional loads of a complex and dynamic gross load--such as an uncomfortable committee member, or an active, restless child--are apportioned, balanced, redistributed, adjusted, reapportioned, and counterbalanced among the unique load-sharing components and features of the applicant's invention. Differential load flux is immediately and implicitly accommodated and controlled through the invention's cooperative, co-responsive, load-sharing, load-distributing, and counterbalancing linkages of such components and features, which integral linkages convey subtle shifts in weights and pressures among the several cooperating fractional-load-sharing components and features of the invention. In furniture, this novel load-support device is implicitly adaptable to gross loads and to subtle changes in the use's posture, its unique conformation moving, flexing, and changing internal interrelationships between its cooperating, co-responsive fractional-load-sharing components and features to conform structurally to the changing posture and purposes of the user and to the changing disposition of the dynamic gross load constituted of varying weights and pressures within the fractional loads, and portions thereof, exerted by the user. This novel capability affords a remarkable--even therapeutic--quality and level of comfort and an unrivaled scope of utility through the applicant's invention when embodied as furniture.
Those constructions within the prior art that most closely resemble the applicant's invention have followed and refined the basic structure disclosed by Paice U.S. Pat. No. 564,312. Such constructions have come to be known generally as "rockerless rocking chairs" due to the pivotal articulation of their parts and due to the forward-and-backward "rocking motion" associated with such constructions when in operation.
Miles U.S. Pat. No. 1,875,478; Stockil U.S. Pat. No. 1,986,381; Bascom U.S. Pat. No. 2,203,610; and Martin U.S. Pat. No. 2,567,341 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,675,059 teach the use of footrests being connected in a simple, unilinear pivotal relationship with the lower portion of the front leg frame, such footrests being independent of the pivotal articulation of the other principal components of such constructions and independent of the functional interrelationships of those components. Such footrests are simply additive elements, functionally separate from the pivotal relationships of the central construction to which they are affixed. In addition, such additive elements are either coincident with already-existing components or are directly and fixedly supplementary to already-existing components, simply duplicating the pivotal or supportive relationships of other components principally involved in the basic flexing constitution of such constructions.
Some constructions included in this art field disclose the use of various "stops" or other means for regulating the forward-and-backward "rocking motion" of such constructions (Bergmann U.S. Pat. No. 1,673,387; Miles U.S. Pat. No. 1,875,478; Stanley U.S. Pat. No. 2,048,147; Bascom U.S. Pat. No. 2,203,610; Roberts III U.S. Pat. No. 2,741,298; Stableford U.S. Pat. No. 3,154,344; Gilbert U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,106; and Singer U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,604.) While Moeller U.S. Pat. No. 2,295,122; Fielding Brit. Pat. No. 12,981; and Bernasconi Brit. Pat. No. 215,559 disclose the use of tension members, the employment of such tension members is incorporated in each of the referenced structures in very specific arrangements through very specific means for very specific ends, such arrangement, means, and ends being very particularly devised in union with the larger structure in which these members are incorporated. Likewise, flexible and elastic tension means, physical limiting means, and combinations thereof are incorporated in the applicant's invention in very particular arrangements through very particular means for very particular ends, all such arrangements, means, and ends relating in very specific ways to the special and novel components and features and arrangements of such components and features disclosed by the applicant's invention. The flexible and elastic means and their associated physical limiting means disclosed by the applicant's invention are formed, arranged, and disposed in very particular dynamic and functional relationships with the unique fractional-load-sharing structures and leg frames of this invention in order to achieve specific load-transfer and motion-governing effects. The prior art does not teach, anticipate, disclose, or embody the particular flexible and elastic tension means, the particular physical limiting means, or the particular arrangement and disposition of such means, as disclosed in the applicant's invention, in order to afford specific load-transfer and motion-governing effects, as achieved by the applicant's invention. Nor does the prior art teach, anticipate, disclose, or embody the novel and integrally superior interacting and cooperative relationships of these load-transferring and motion-governing means with the uniquely beneficial arrangement of load-distributing, counterbalancing, fractional-load-sharing structures, and portions thereof, nor the unique advantages of the functional union of these structures and means through cooperative co-respondence with the leg frames, as disclosed by the applicant's invention.
In most chairs of this general type, the seat and backrest are composed of a single piece of flexible planar material, such as canvas or other fabric, being fixed to and draped between the upper ends of the chairs' intersecting main frames. Though Miles U.S. Pat. No. 1,875,478 and Bascom U.S. Pat. No. 2,203,610 disclose this common sling-type seat/backrest component--not distinguishing separate seat and backrest structures--they disclose the attachment of the lower forward end of the fabric sling to a transverse cross-bar joining forward extensions of the upper lateral pivot bars, thus forming a front seat edge, of a sort, as part of a generally U-shaped upper lateral pivot frame. Still, the sling-type seating surface is ill-suited both to the natural jointing and seated conformation of the human body and is ill-suited to the comfort and poise of the body in precisely controlling the configuration of the chairs' pivotally articulated structure in relation to varying distributions of weights and pressures on the seating surface. In the first instance, the sling seat/backrest conforms the posture of the user to the curving contour of draped fabric, and in the second instance, that draped surface can only imprecisely convey to the chairs' structure necessarily very general forces associated with alternations in the center of gravity of the user, rather than responding directly and precisely to subtle and specific changes in the distribution of fractional loads of varying weights and pressures, as such loads are apportioned and spontaneously reapportioned among discrete yet integrally interacting, co-responsive, and counterbalancing fractional-load-sharing components, as is uniquely achieved by the applicant's invention.
Moeller U.S. Pat. No. 2,295,122; Simpson U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,950; Gilbert U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,106; and Singer U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,604 teach that the seat and the backrest can be structurally distinguished to form functionally separate components of such constructions. Moeller U.S. Pat. No. 2,295,122 discloses the use of distinct but pivotally connected frames, the backrest frame also being distinguished from the intersecting leg frames and each seating surface being of a flexible matrix composition. Simpson U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,950 also discloses separate seat and backrest frames, each comprising flexible matrix material, such as canvas fabric, to provide load supporting surfaces. Gilbert U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,106 teaches the use of the seat surface material itself to provide upper lateral tension for supporting the chair's intersecting main frames in the erect, operative position, with a fabric backrest being stretched from the upper ends of the longer (backrest) main frame to the sides of the fabric seat. Singer U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,604 discloses the use of a seat cushion resting above the upper flexible tension components, with a separate backrest component pivotally suspended between the upper ends of the longer (backrest) main frame.
However, although Simpson U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,950 discloses separate seat and backrest frames, the Simpson construction could not embody and could not accommodate the special and novel features disclosed by the applicant's invention. That is, because in the Simpson construction the width of the rear leg frame is greater than that of the front leg frame, that construction can not be provided with a stiff, planar, load-apportioning, and counterbalancing seat structure extending rearward of the pivotal connections of the seat structure with the front leg frame, as is embodied in the applicant's invention. Nor could the Simpson construction accomodate a rigid, co-responsive, load-apportioning, counterbalancing footrest structure, because in folding a modified Simpson construction provided with such a component, the footrest structure would interfere with the front leg frame, unless the footrest structure were so inordinately long and the front leg frame so inordinately short as to cause the construction to be inoperative and unusable.
In addition, these latter disclosures, in which seat and backrest components are distinguished, do not adequately solve problems of precise, torsionally counterbalancing gross-load-apportionment and implicitly co-responsive fractional-load-adjustment and -reapportionment, because only one load-bearing component (the seat) is pivotally connected to a low-torsionally-interactive and marginal-load-supporting component (the backrest) in simple, direct, and largely non-counterbalancing relationship. Nor do these latter disclosures address the advantages of implicitly, co-responsively controlling the conformation of a pivotally integrated construction under dynamic fractional loads of varying weight and pressure elements and of changing torsion forces by spontaneous variation in the apportionment of such weight and pressure elements of those fractional loads and torsion forces, because in these representatives of the prior art, the load-bearing surfaces are composed of loose, flexible materials and therefore yield locally and imprecisely to generalized weight and pressure variations, thereby causing the seat and backrest components to respond in simple, non-torsional, marginally co-responsive and non-counterbalancing relationships only to broad changes in the distribution of the gross load, rather than responding subtly and precisely to specific changes in the distribution of dynamic fractional loads, of variable torsion forces, and of weight and pressure elements thereof.
The prior art does not provide several integrally related co-responsive, torsionally interacting, and implicitly counterbalancing fractional-load-sharing components, such as structurally distinct yet pivotally articulated load-distributing and -reapportioning seat and footrest structures, co-responsive front and rear leg frames, and cooperating load-transfer and motion-governing means. Therefore, the prior art does not provide means for implicitly distributing, apportioning, counterbalancing, and spontaneously adjusting, reapportioning, and controlling particular fractional loads nor for implicitly distributing and spontaneously reapportioning, conveying, controlling, and limiting interactive torsion forces among directly cooperating, counterbalancing fractional-load-sharing components, features, and governing means as inherent facilities and capacities of the unique array of constituent parts and of their uniquely co-responsive integration, as provided by the applicant's invention.
Further, the standing structural components of the applicant's invention can be composed of standard linear materials. Because the upper load-bearing structure has width lesser than that of the front leg frame and because the upper load-bearing structure is thus enabled to extend rearward of its pivotal connections with the front leg frame, the upper front leg frame cross-bar, or backrest, of the presently preferred embodiment is enabled to occupy a position that affords a comfortable and comfortably variable upright--that is, sitting rather than lounging--orientation without the need to incorporate more complex, curved elements or more complex hinging of elements into the structure of the invention. The prior art does not afford this notable advantage.
Also, because the standing structural components of the applicant's invention can be composed of standard linear materials, the relative spacing of the pivotal connections of the various articulating components can be arranged so that, when not in use, the construction can be simply and easily folded absolutely flat, having all such pivotal connections and all such linear and planar components occupying a common plane. The prior art does not achieve this significant advantage, and in fact, most representatives of the prior art teach away from the achievement of this advantage.
In addition, taken together, the prior art constitutes a widely varied class of lounging furniture suited for use on lawns, patios, beaches, and for other casual, and generally rough, outdoor usage. But especially notable in view of the applicant's invention, the prior art is substantially restricted to these kinds of uses and to the rustic, unrefined styles and rough qualities of fabrication consistent with them. Each example of the prior art is itself also substantially restricted in its range of functional and stylistic variations to rather rough, casual applications. By contrast however, the applicant's invention introduces the option of establishing a significant improvement in the stylistic variety, aesthetic quality, and refinement of construction in such articles of furniture, by virtue of this intention's incorporation of functionally distinct, yet co-responsive and torsionally counterbalancing fraction-load-sharing structures, these structures being potentially composed of finely-crafted, high-quality materials and augmented by the inclusion of finely upholstered supplementary components.
In addition, due to the structural limitations of folding chairs using fabric sling-type seating surfaces, many representatives of the prior art are inherently cumbersome, unstable, and uncertain in the execution and control of their "rocking motion" when in use and of their folding actions when not in use. Many also are difficult to unfold in preparation for use. None folds completely flat--that is, with all pivot points and structural components lying substantially in a single plane--when not in use, and so are difficult to store and to transport efficiently. The applicant's invention does not share these deficiencies and difficulties but rather discloses practical and effective solutions for them.
Where shaping and fabrication processes have been needed to create curved structural components or complex hinging arrangements in order to alleviate the problems and deficiencies in the prior art referenced above, the costs of production and distribution are increased, and the resulting construction is made more complicated. New, more sophisticated disadvantages are exchanged for older, simpler ones, and still the unique and significant benefits of the applicant's invention are not achieved. By contrast, the applicant's invention achieves all of the advantages referenced above while avoiding all of the deficiencies, complications, disadvantages, and inelegance characteristic of the prior art.